Poverty indicators: Financial Secretary Henry Tang says a study will be conducted to devise a series of social indicators to reflect and monitor Hong Kong's poverty situation.

A study will be conducted to devise a series of social indicators to reflect and monitor Hong Kong's poverty situation, Financial Secretary Henry Tang says.

Speaking after the first meeting of the Commission on Poverty today, Mr Tang said it is not practicable to use one single indicator to define and measure people's needs for a wide variety of services and support measures.

"As far as a poverty line is concerned, we are going to study various social indicators because poverty involves more than a rigid group of targets," he said.

"We have to identify whom our service targets are. We are looking for this kind of social indicator in order to identify the right group of targets."

Commission members agreed to adopt a community-based approach in studying and identifying the needs of the poor, and will conduct district visits to better understand the special challenges of different communities.

As a first step, commission members will visit Tin Shui Wai in March.

The commission has also identified prevention of intergenerational poverty as a priority item for discussion at the next meeting.

Identifying needs

Describing the first meeting as useful and constructive, Mr Tang said all commission members share the common goals of identifying the needs of the poor and alleviating poverty through encouraging and supporting self-reliance and community engagement.

At today's meeting, members were given an overview on existing government policies and measures in alleviating poverty. They also shared their expectations on the work of the commission and expressed their views on policy areas where services needed to be enhanced or required better co-ordination.

There was also lively debate on how to measure poverty and identify people who require additional support and services.

To promote transparency and provide better public access to the commission's work, a dedicated website has been launched. All non-classified papers and a summary of members' discussions will be uploaded to the site after each meeting.